Michael Gove, the Conservatives' shadow children, schools and families secretary, has said that the party is committed to a "crusade" on social policy to deal with what he called the "deep social structural problems" that keep 20 to 30% of the UK population in poverty.

Speaking on the programme, he defended the party's decision to cut incapacity benefit to help fund a new programme to get people back to work.

"All the time that this government have been in power there are eight hundred thousand people who've been permanently on incapacity benefit," he said. "So we absolutely need to ensure that those who can work do. And we'll put in place the mechanisms in order to make it easier for people to make the transition from a life on benefits to a fulfilling life of work."

Mr Gove, one of the party's most influential main thinkers, added that the party wanted to change public services to suit the modern - "post-bureaucratic" - age.